Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS

Ian 00:56

Yes. Well, I can't say yet. I'll let you know when we reach it.

Matthew 01:00

Alright. Okay. Well, we are talking about the 1985 movie, Real Genius, directed by Martha Coolidge. I'm starring Val Kilmer and Gabe Jarrett.

Ian 01:12

Yeah. Honestly, this was a movie about science. I thought I'd wear the lab coat, but no, this is not, this is a movie about college. Yeah, this is, this is a, this is a college, I want to call it just, you know, a college action romp. Oh, that's a good, that is science themed.

Matthew 01:35

There was a certain theme that went through a number of eighties movies about smart people and the evil people who wanted to misuse their genius. Yes. And or you could even broaden that to kids versus evil engineering types. 'cause we've talked about some of those, like the Manhattan Project.

Ian 01:56

Oh, yes. Uh, and of course the Medfield College trilogy there. Yeah. This is, there's something kind of Medfield College about this. Oh, oh. I, I completely get the feeling that, um, Pacific Tech University, the fictional college from this is like an in, uh, an, an interstate rival of Medfield.

Matthew 02:21

Yes, yes. You can imagine the big annual, Medfield versus, PAC Tech, a football game or basketball game.

Ian 02:28

Exactly.

Matthew 02:29

It's interesting, obviously this, this Pacific Tech is a not terribly well veiled. Version of Caltech. Mm-hmm. And Caltech is one of those colleges that there are, are more than a few, at least I can think of a few, versions, fictionalized versions. There's this, there's Cal Sci from the TV series numbers. Yes. I wonder how many other versions of Caltech there are out there in the cinematic universe.

Ian 02:55

Oh goodness. That's a list for you.

Matthew 02:57

Are there any other schools that get this? Are there, are there, um, multiple fictional representations of MIT For example,

Ian 03:05

I get the, I, I'm betting there are a couple good fictional versions of MIT. Of course there's plenty of fictional, high-end boarding schools. Yeah. Uh, in various stories. Xavier Institute, things like that might count. I don't know.

Matthew 03:22

It seems like on the East Coast, if a story is going to be set in. Harvard or Yale, they just call it Harvard or Yale. But then those are usually, they're more stories involving the humanities and they're not as much about super science going wrong, so maybe they don't feel as pressured to disguise the setting.

Ian 03:41

Yeah, that's a good point.

Matthew 03:43

But this is, is a, a, Pacific Tech is a, a very specific kind of school in

Ian 03:51

this. Mm-hmm. And, and I'll give this a point, this is not a story about the science going wrong.

Matthew 03:57

No, no. It's not

Ian 04:00

real. Genius is a story about the collision between science and industry and culture.

Matthew 04:10

Yes. It's about science being, appropriated for the wrong reasons.

Ian 04:15

Exactly,

Matthew 04:17

because the movie opens up not with students, not with science per se. It opens up with a, a presentation video trying to sell a weapons system to the Pentagon. Yeah. The, the project crossbow, which will allow an orbital or a suborbital shuttle to vaporize anyone anywhere in the, on the planet because of a high powered laser.

Ian 04:42

So a a and then it leads immediately into a boardroom of CIA operatives laughing about how unethical, this is, but they're going to do it anyway.

Matthew 04:54

And the one guy whose conscience will not allow him to move forward with this, leaves the meeting and the response from the others is, oh, he was a good guy, as in, he's not gonna be around much longer.

Ian 05:06

Yeah. And I mean. It fits. Start out with, you know, hi, where are your, where are your bad guys? We'll be bad Guying today.

Matthew 05:17

Yeah. Not a lot of subtlety in this, eighties military industrial complex, , portrayals.

Ian 05:22

But I, I think we don't even need that, uh, qualifier at the end. Not a lot of subtlety.

Matthew 05:28

Yeah.

Ian 05:29

Because that's this movie. It is, it is boisterous in many different directions. It's bad guys are bad. Guying verb. Yep. And our protagonists at times, just protagonist to their way through, I'll admit, but it's fun. Yeah.

Matthew 05:51

Because plot wise, something else we learned in this very opening scene is not only does the military want this project, not only do the corporations who are trying to sell this project want to sell this project, the project doesn't work yet. The technology isn't there and they're under severe deadline pressure to get this laser to the power and portability that it needs to be at.

Ian 06:14

Yeah. That's not a great place to be. So they're going to work on it. Send Professor Jerry Hathaway. So go get this fixed. And Hathaway is not doing that. He's making his students do it. and that's where we get this like incremental pressures aspect, which is a huge part of this movie. The CIA is pressuring Jerry, Jerry is pressuring. one of our two leads, young genius and senior here at, uh, Pacific Tech, Chris Knight, and that puts pressure on the team working on the laser, and that puts pressure on the newest member of the team.

Young wiz kid, recruited straight from high school early. Mitch Taylor.

Matthew 07:08

So Mitch is, is going to to Pacific Tech, but he's 15 years old, having skipped I don't know how many grades and going into the, one of the most competitive, the technical universities with a full ride, but a lot of pressure on him because he becomes the, the pet genius of Hathaway. To, to get this project on track and get it done. And we have to talk for a moment about Hathaway because he's played by William Atherton, who is the quintessential eighties bad guy in so many ways. He was the EPA guy in Ghostbusters Yes. Was one of the FBI guys in diehard

Who, who in many ways are some of the

Ian 07:57

Oh yeah. If you're, if you're trying to imagine like an eighties film in which someone got in someone else's way, there's a fine chance it was Atherton.

Matthew 08:06

Oh me, I, I'm mis mistake. And he's shown up in all sorts of stuff later. I Correct. I'm correcting myself. He was not one of the FBI guys. He was the reporter who was even worse in Die Hard. Oh, oh goodness. He's the reporter who put, uh, McLean's family in, in jeopardy by releasing their identities. Mm-hmm. Such a good eighties bad guy,

Ian 08:26

he's still doing all sorts of stuff. He is one of those that guy actors who is still showing up and making you say it's that guy. He was in some episodes of murder she wrote. Nice.

Matthew 08:40

Oh, he was acting in the eighties. Of course he was.

Ian 08:43

Absolutely. So, he does an amazing job kind of getting increasingly frenetic and unhinged as it goes. His acting acts as this, thermometer of the. Story the entire time, which lets all the other actors and lets the rest of the story have, its fun shifting tone when it wants and needs.

Matthew 09:07

it does a very good job of setting up this little pressure cooker at the very beginning where you've got the, the corporate, military and the corporation putting pressure on Hathaway, who in turn press puts pressure on his team, which puts tremendous pressure on, uh, Mitch and Knight, who are the, the smartest, most capable people on that team. And so much of the movie is therefore seeing how people respond to this pressure because Chris Knight's situation is, he's a senior. He's already got a terrific job lined up for after he graduates. Thanks. In part to being Hathaway's protege and he's really not interested in continuing to work at school. He figures that's done, he's here to, in his last couple of months to have fun. And Mitch is needing to prove himself now that he's gotten there and dealing with the pressures of being a 15-year-old in this pressure cooker.

Ian 10:02

And the characters even spell it out. There is a brilliant, um, I was you speech early on where Chris and Mitch Chris kind of tells Mitch like, I was like, how you are now for the first three years here. And it was awful. And I'm, you're, what you're seeing now is me finally letting go because you know, Mitch is there in, you know, his slacks and a dress shirt and is looking all little professional with a briefcase, and Chris has a iHeart toxic waste shirt.

It's showing up in bunny slippers everywhere he goes. He, he is this, this almost at this point, iconic styling of the rambunctious genius who stops having the social cares because he's smart enough to just make the things happen. And you see these two characters mirroring each other and acknowledging the mirror of each other.

Matthew 11:09

Yeah, it, it's an interesting, don't wanna get too far ahead of the story, but it's an interesting situation where you get to see this kind of mentorship. Scenario in which the mentee learns so much from the mentor without ever seeming to feel any pressure to become like the mentor.

Ian 11:29

Yes.

Matthew 11:29

Mitch is on a journey to be a freer and more complete version of himself, not to be mm-hmm. Chris Knight Jr.

Ian 11:37

Right. And, all the characters have some form of evolution over it, and I think that's an important and beneficial thing. it is a story that when you first see these characters, you might assume, okay, high jinks ensue, and the, the growth isn't really there. No, there's a lot of growth in this.

Matthew 11:56

It's all hidden under very, a very wacky sense of humor. Lots of technology slapstick, but it's there.

Ian 12:05

So we've got these two geniuses working on the team. Uh, Kent, who is, is he's

Matthew 12:15

not another student or is he He is another student and he fancies himself as Hathaway's right hand man. Even though he is not nearly as capable as Chris Knight, he's more of a toady. He wants to, to please Hathaway and Hathaway will use him. He's the guy who gets Hathaway's dry cleaning. He's the guy who yeah, compiles the notes that the other people are actually generating all the lab results. Uh, but he is not the pivotal member of the team that he wants to be and thinks he is. And he, he seems to be one of these people who figures that any day Now, Hathaway is going to give me the shot that he's just been waiting to give me, because obviously I'm so useful and obviously I'm so much better than all these guys.

Ian 12:57

Ooh. So,

Matthew 13:00

so he is another kind of eighties bad guy trope in that they don't necessarily talk about the economic backgrounds of these characters, but in many ways he is the, the rich kid stereotype where he just sees himself as inherently better than the people around him.

Ian 13:20

I'm trying to think of the rest of the group that we encounter.

Matthew 13:24

There are a few other, uh, people as who are part of this Team. They, they are interestingly, differentiated, but they don't play a big role in the story sometimes. Yeah. Almost a little bit of a chorus to comment and twist the knife when, uh, when Kent is once again let down by Hathaway, things like that.

Ian 13:44

Uh, there is one more character I think we need to acknowledge though. Oh,

Matthew 13:48

absolutely.

Ian 13:50

That is Laslo, Hollyfield.

Matthew 13:52

Oh. Not who I thought you were gonna talk about, but yeah. We gotta talk about Laslo.

Ian 13:55

Oh. Because early on in this establishment, we get the weirdness of there's a guy living in the closet over there. , he becomes this like wandering, sentient force of the plot almost. Yes. And, and he, there's something about like the actor they've got for him. Um, this is John Gr, who I think I've seen in other stuff.

Matthew 14:22

He was on TV for a while in, um, the Pretender, I think it was.

Ian 14:27

Yeah. And I've heard his name, and his, voice in other stuff 'cause he's done voice acting for a variety of things. Oh,,

Matthew 14:33

in this movie, he's kind of a crypted. You get these sightings of laslow , coming out of the closet in their dorm room. 'cause Mitch and Knight are, are rooming together and coming back in and just disappearing into the closet. He goes back into the closet, Mitch rushes over, opens the door and there's nothing. Yeah.

Ian 14:52

It, it's, it doesn't seem like much at first, it seems like more of a running joke and yet it is a fine example of the fact that Real Genius is a tightly woven story. There is, if, if something's referenced once, that doesn't mean it's gone. Nothing wasted. Even even his character who seems out of place and just to make the place seem stranger is not wasted. who are you thinking I was going to bring up?

Matthew 15:25

I thought you were gonna mention Jordan.

Ian 15:27

Ah, that is a good point. Jordan Cochran. She is, she's an interesting character. She kind, she kind of explodes onto the scene.

Matthew 15:40

Yeah. This is Michelle May ring playing Jordan, who's another student who is the most hyper person you could imagine and who acknowledges that. And she just, she speaks so fast in these nonstop, no pause, no break paragraphs. Uh, and she, she never sleeps as she is quick to point out. So if you need anything, let me know. I'm right down the hall and I never sleep.

Ian 16:06

And she's also our, Mechanical engineer of the team, which gives this wonderful thing of the, we need a device and she just makes the device.

Matthew 16:17

Yeah, that is interesting. There is sort of a mission impossible team among these students. 'cause you've got the two genius physicists, Mitch and Chris Knight. You've got the mechanical engineer, Jordan, you've got their friend Ick who's a biochemist.

Ian 16:30

Yes. And Kent is actually kind of useful in the laser team. 'cause I take it he is a specialist in optics 'cause he's doing mirrors and lens work.

Matthew 16:41

That's a good point. That seems to be his specialty.

Ian 16:44

Which is also played on by the fact that he has giant thick glasses.

Matthew 16:48

Yes.

Ian 16:49

So him being the lens specialist and always wearing these giant obscuring lenses on his face kind of adds to that. And he's not a member of the team, but there's that same sort of like specialization aspect even to the bad guys.

Matthew 17:04

Yep.

Ian 17:05

So we've got our different characters all kind of working on the laser project. Slowly but steadily. Uh, um, Chris, not so much though. Chris is off goofing off making other things.

Matthew 17:22

Yeah. He has no interest in continuing to work. He figures, he's got his degree on lock, he's got his job on lock. He's just gonna enjoy himself. But there's the pressure on this project because. They give themselves a, a, a measurement. There is a, a goal that they need to achieve story-wise because they need a certain power output from this laser in order to deliver it to the government for testing. And they haven't quite gotten to that power output.

They need to get to this power of laser with within the limitations of the power that they can put into it. So it is kind of a pure physics problem in that way.

Ian 18:03

Yeah. They're trying to get five megawatts

Matthew 18:08

and I have no idea how that compares to any reasonable laser or if that's a, a number the writers pulled outta their hats are what,

Ian 18:16

um, they're actually, they're actually closer than you'd think because megawatt power lasers, uh, things in the five megawatt range. Are the sort of things that current Navy laser weapons systems are testing at.

Matthew 18:37

So they're at least in the ballpark of, if we wanna imagine a laser that can vaporize people from space. Yeah. Yeah. You walk to mid to high single digit megawatts, huh?

Ian 18:47

Even a single megawatt laser could bore a hole through clouds in a, a single megawatt could only bore hole through clouds. Mm-hmm. But higher amounts, you're pushing more energy into that space. There is talk of being able to do things like using lasers as storm removal, cut through clouds and such. That sort of concept has been, in this level,

Matthew 19:12

It'd make crop circles so much easier.

Ian 19:14

It would absolutely. I am going to just say I've done, there's two more instances of Ian does the math coming though, because this is the sort of movie that causes that.

Matthew 19:24

Oh yeah. and it's interesting to note that the first time we see Mitch, he is at a science fair High school Science fair where, where Hathaway has come to meet him and his parents, Hathaway already having recruited him, but, but Mitch's Science Fair Project is about an innovative kind of laser. Yeah. So he's, he's not only incredibly smart, but he's focused on exactly the kind of problem that Hathaway needs to solve, which probably is what led to Hathaway finding and recruiting him.

Ian 19:54

So he's, he's already got a fascination with this and his, his ride into Pacific Tech is as much because Jerry sees him as a usable resource on this specific topic. Yeah. Not because he has faith in this kid

Matthew 20:11

you get the impression that that's the way Hathaway sees students and just about everything else is how can I use this to better myself? Yeah. A lot of the money he's getting from this corporation and this government grant for this laser project, it's going to the new brand new house he's building. It's not actually going into the project. He figures out, yeah, I've got free labor from students. I can spend a lot of this money on my new house

Ian 20:35

and that new house, it is kind of garish, but at the same time extremely, uh, extremely eighties in certain ways. It's got a lot of wood fit with like extra. Bright green and red filigree designs on it and such. It's,

Matthew 20:52

yeah, it is. It's kind of, my goodness. A m mansion on the edge of a new development kind of thing. He's not building a castle in the mountains, but he's building something that he would not have, been able to afford even at his, professor salary.

Ian 21:04

Yeah.

Matthew 21:05

So this sets us up with two main, plot drivers. We've got Mitch having this growing up experience, this coming of age in this bizarre environment as more the, the protege of Chris Knight than of Hathaway. He's just exactly George to Hathaway, as you say. And there is the, the plot driver of this project and the increasing pressure and the increasingly dangerous pressure put on Hathaway and the pressure that that puts on the, the project team at the university.

And we see these interact in interesting ways, but they, they still have plenty of room for just weird, fun scenes because a lot of the attraction of the movie is this weird, fun character that Val Kilmer is playing as Chris Knight. , and Mitch becoming more of an interesting and fun character. As time goes on, we get to see that character change so much.

Ian 22:01

Exactly. So we get things like, uh, ick having frozen the entirety of the hallway in their dorm so that they can have an ice skating, rink. Yes. In the middle of, spring semester,

Matthew 22:17

yes. They have smart people on ice as they, they slide around in the, the dorm with the safe ice in that it's going to sublimate rather than turning to liquid.

Ian 22:27

Yeah. And it immediately during the end of the scene, sublimates and just fog machines the whole place in a brilliant effect.

Matthew 22:34

And that's the first time we meet Jordan, is when she's attempting a bobsled run down the stairs. So from the very beginning, we're seeing here her take a, an engineering approach to what could I build to work with this? Mm-hmm.

Ian 22:45

And we're immediately seeing ick with his chemical approach of having built this, this quick freezing, quick supplementing ice. Uh, that only lasts like what, an half an hour or something? Yeah. I don't know story wise, but it's pretty, it's pretty swift. Um, we get of course bullying of, uh, of our lead, Mitch by Kent and his crew

Matthew 23:12

Yeah. Who get increasingly jealous of the regard he gets from Jerry Hathaway.

Ian 23:17

And that leads to, you know, recording a message from home and playing on the public speakers and such. And this actually helps bring Mitch and Chris closer together as,, Chris helps Mitch get back at Kent, doing things like disassembling his car and reassembling it in his dorm room. She's such a wild moment. And, and all the while there are, montage scenes of the fact that they're still going to class dealing with, you know, tests. The school is still happening around them.

Matthew 23:55

Yeah. We do get montage scenes of the amount of work involved mm-hmm. In the combination of classwork and the, the work that they're supposed to be doing in the lab, on this laser project. And we get a few of those. As Mitch attempting to keep up with everything he has to do later on, we have a sequence where there's really a deadline to get the laser project done. We've got another great eighties work montage,

Ian 24:23

I, I gotta say, some of those montage. I feel like there was interesting commentary on the school system as a whole during some of that, especially with the repeated classroom scene and the boom boxes. There was a recalled scene where Mitch is going to class and there's a bunch of students, but a couple of people like put down a boom box, start recording and leave, and then as we keep going back to this, showing a progression of time, there's more recording devices and fewer students until there's just Mitch.

A bunch of chairs filled with boom boxes listening to the professor and one final brilliant scene of it where he comes into the classroom and there's all these boom boxes set up and there's a tape player off the teacher's desk playing a lesson.

Matthew 25:23

So even the lecture is on tape. There are no people involved.

Ian 25:27

No people involved. This is, this is absolutely disconnected from the people at, at this point, which is a great way to show that pressure and everything else. But it's also like no one's actually doing the school work. No one's actually interacting here. It's just a relay of preowned knowledge out to preowned knowledge in.

Matthew 25:51

And there's this idea that you've set up a system where it is literally impossible to keep up with everything that needs to be done. Mm-hmm. So these weird shortcuts that will never work are being taken by everybody involved. And one of the other functions of that initial montage with all the classwork and the lectures and things are the additional cryptid sightings.

Ian 26:14

Yes,

Matthew 26:16

Mitch has, has gotten a better look at this guy. He keeps coming out of the closet or going back into the closet, and then he starts seeing him around campus, moving around fertively, but only getting a glimpse and trying to follow him, and he can't find him. He just sort of disappeared. So it really is like a bigfoot hunt and it helps that they've made this character very weird and tall with a big beard, very bigfoot, like very

Ian 26:43

Sasquatch, big beard, and sometimes wearing like a, an off sized jacket. So his shoulders are the wrong proportion, right? It's extremely bigfoot sighting, but it adds to the, the frenetic unreality, but very real kind of unreality of it all.

Matthew 27:02

And, and Mitch talks to Chris Knight about this, and Knight knows about this, Oh, you've seen him too. Won't actually give any information. But, uh, but he acknowledges, yeah. There's a guy who keeps going in and out of our closet.

Ian 27:18

He almost seems to respect him.

Matthew 27:20

Yeah. It's like, you know, we don't mess with that. It's just one of those things. And yet we, um, eventually Mitch does make some progress in that mystery because one of the, one of the breaks we see where we, we slow down to get an actual scene is he pretends to have fallen asleep while studying. He sees Laslo go, this guy go into the closet. Immediately goes over and opens the closet and sees nothing. But now he's takes some time and starts to figure it out and realizes if he steps into the closet and closes the closet door behind him, a secret door at the back of the closet opens up,

Ian 27:58

which, which leads to a little like, uh, carnival ride. The little cart that takes him down underneath the school building. Yes. A little

Matthew 28:08

rollercoaster elevators and things into the steam tunnels. And he finds the lair Yeah. Where this guy has set up this little chamber with a bunch of computers and, you know, I'm, I'm microwave and a fridge. And essentially he's living down there doing something very intently with a whole bunch of computers.

Ian 28:32

Yeah. Which you've gotta think like the types of computers we're dealing with in 85 here. That is a, a bit of a, it's a, it's a, it's a very different kind of, much more mechanical kind of environment with the size and scale of these devices.

Matthew 28:53

Yeah. These are not racks of laptops or something. These are probably things that were decommissioned liberated from computer science labs at the school.

Ian 29:01

Mm-hmm.

Matthew 29:02

And we don't know what he's doing, but he's living this kind of real, real mole man kind of existence down there.

Ian 29:09

Oh. Extremely mole man. And that's terrifying in its own right. Um, is it then that we get to learn his backstory or,

Matthew 29:21

I don't know if it's exactly then, but eventually we learn some more. Mitch learns more from Chris Knight about who this is. Mm-hmm.

Ian 29:30

This is, this was Laslow Holly Field. He was a former genius student, like both of them who had a nervous breakdown when he learned that the computer systems he was developing would be used for, military targeting systems.

Matthew 29:50

So he, he's a legend, this legendary figure, and nobody knew that he was still on campus, but nobody knew what happened to him. So Mitch and uh, and Chris Knight are some of the few people who know the secret of Laslo and that he's still here down in the tunnels.

Ian 30:06

Mm-hmm. As this is all going though, they're still trying to work on their laser project piece by piece

Matthew 30:17

and it is important that they learn who Laslo is, who this guy in the closet is, because that is what finally gets Mitch to loosen up more. Yes. When he learns kinda what happened when somebody who went under all that pressure and was that, that, uh, brittle. So he starts to learn more from Chris, not to ignore his, his passion for science, not to ignore his studies, but to lighten up and figure out who he is and become himself.

Ian 30:46

Yes. And around the same time in the story, the threat finally comes home to Chris As the pressures keep mounting on. Professor Jerry Hathaway, Jerry finally turns around and says, N no, you're not gonna graduate. Even if you pass my test, you will fail my test. I want what I want, get me this laser with these specifications within the next two months.

Matthew 31:22

And Hathaway had put this ultimatum on Chris , you need to be in the lab 24 hours a day. You need to be doing nothing other than working on this until I get what I need. Yes. And Chris is of course not doing that. He is, um, he's, he's, oh yes. Having his ice skating parties. He's, uh, figuring out how to use liquid nitrogen to freeze fake quarters for the coffee machine. He is, oh yeah. He's using I love that. That is great.

Ian 31:51

I loved the fake quarters bit where it's just him sleepy as anything, wandering over to the freezer, pulling out this device, pulling it out, slicing a specific slice, and then slotting it into the machine and it registers. So I'm like.

Matthew 32:06

Something I noticed on this viewing, and we'll talk about the significance in a little bit, is, is how freezing things is a theme of the technology we see. The the ice skating. Yes. The freezing, the fake quarters. but Knight is not abiding by Jerry's, ultimatum. He, when you think he's, he is going back into the lab to finally help Mitch, who's taking the work more seriously to help Mitch with the laser.

He's actually diverted the laser to paint a laser sign to advertise their beach party in the auditorium. Yes. And that's the last straw for Jerry.

Ian 32:46

Oh yes. That's the point where Jerry says, Nope, I'm failing you unless you can fix this. And you see, you see Chris Knight. Actually pause for a moment. Realize that he can't be certain to get what he was hoping.

Matthew 33:05

Yeah. He thinks everything's gone. That he just, all these things he took for granted, the degree, the job, everything, all of that hinged on, on Hathaway and Hathaway could take them away at any moment, which he does. He says, no, Kent is gonna get your job.

Ian 33:20

And and part of that was all about how, you know Kent will get your job and Mitch is so much better of a genius than you. And you watch Chris Knight kind of say, I need to learn a little bit from Mitch and rehab some of that dedication to my science. And he, that's part of what gets them to solve the laser problem is Chris who'd previously stated how much he used to be like Mitch re acknowledging that part of himself.

Matthew 33:50

Mm-hmm.

Ian 33:51

With this example. So they are. Both teaching each other. Chris is learning that he does have to take things seriously sometimes and he has to put in the effort to use his, uh, his talent. And Mitch is learning that I will burn myself to a crisp if I don't lighten up. And so the two of them start at opposite sides and they move closer together. And by the end they're kind of acting as one character. Yes. I'll admit.

Matthew 34:21

Yes. They, they become more of a team in that way.

Ian 34:23

They become more of a team though,

Matthew 34:25

Voltron physicist.

Ian 34:26

Yes. this is where we get like our next montage of, after we had this wonderful giant party event, which was wild and did excellent things, setting up the fact that Mitch and Jordan are , a cute little couple. We get another montage similar to the first all about, actually getting the work done and putting in the hours and figuring out the time. And that's where I'm like, even for the wacky science of this, this is a science movie about the fact that science takes time.

Matthew 35:00

Which is really nice. Ultimately, physics is physics. You can't, you can't break any certain rules.

Ian 35:07

Exactly. So I appreciate that about this because there's so many movies in this similar genre for whom like, Eureka and I found a thing in my garage one day, doesn't have the, it took me four years in that garage to have that moment kind of attitude. This movie is actually better about that.

Matthew 35:30

There's no moment where you go from a brand new scientific principle to a working device in two weeks the way some movies do.

Ian 35:39

Exactly.

Matthew 35:40

But eventually they crack it. And Chris Knight, um, well, well, he has a horrible catastrophe brought on by Kent because he's very, very close and can demonstrate this. And Kent sabotages the equipment. He smears a little grease on some of the optics and that causes it to blow up.

Ian 36:04

And yet, in his crash out afterwards, Chris gets an idea. From his own frozen roll of nitro that he uses for the quarters. He is got an idea for making one that will work. And so they try working on that.

Matthew 36:23

Yeah. They're using a, essentially a frozen optical medium to get mm-hmm. Uh, the, decreased power loss that they need.

Ian 36:31

Yeah. He says he uses a frozen bromine, uh, bromine solution.

Matthew 36:35

Yeah. I have no idea if that makes any sense or if it's just techno babble, but it's good techno babble, if that's what it is.

Ian 36:41

It's excellent techno babble, except then they fire a purple laser out of it. I did my research. That's it. We're on. Ian does the math two. Bromine lasers exist. Bromine lasers are common, but bromine lasers are green.

Matthew 37:01

Well, it depends on which part of the force you use, right?

Ian 37:04

I guess so they

Matthew 37:07

were,

Ian 37:07

they, they were channeling the Mace Windu.

Matthew 37:09

That's right.

Ian 37:11

Okay. That makes more sense. but um, they make a 6 megawatt laser, It's like, ah, you wanted, you wanted a, uh, a five megawatt laser. We made a six. I will also say they make a continuous laser.

Matthew 37:29

Yes. This is, they, that is just a

Ian 37:31

pulse. No, uh, there is a Zeta Watt equivalent ultra short laser system called Zeus made by the, the US National Science Foundation. Mm-hmm. And it does what a lot of high powered lasers do. It pulses. So we make lasers stronger than this, but this, the ridiculous technology here is a laser that is continuous, so it can just burn a hole through the target and the wall. And the statue of the, of the, uh, college's founder and the hamburger played downage in the town nearby. Yes, exactly.

Which gets us Congratulations, Chris. Yeah, you're you're, you're a menace.

Matthew 38:17

Yeah. It's, it's a, it's a movie. So they, they make it clear that nobody was actually in the way of the laser. Nobody besides the statue got hurt. But yeah, this could have been a, a horror movie. Very easily without much of a change.

Ian 38:32

Absolutely. And this gets us to the, to everyone kind of having a celebratory drink and burger afterwards.

Matthew 38:42

Yeah. It's one of those few opportunities where we see more of the characters just hanging out, not doing a weird science prank, not working in class or, or something. Just being college students and having a burger and a beer. Yeah. And Jordan asking Mitch, if you will take me home just to meet your parents. And he says, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, you're that embarrassed of me?. No, no. I'm embarrassed about them.

Ian 39:09

I love that line.

Matthew 39:10

It's a great little throwaway we see.

Ian 39:12

And it's so wonderful. 'cause we've continuously seen, um, Mitch's parents in all of their, you know, scenes just not getting anything scientific. They are, they are completely lost about everything. So. this is where though, storyline pieces that are properly used come together again, because who shows up? But Laslow Hollyfield. Hmm? Who says you guys just made a laser that strong. Do you realize what's that's gonna be used for?

Matthew 39:50

If you to add to that laser, the mirror and tracking system that was Kent's part of the project. You've got a weapon.

Ian 40:00

Yeah. And so exactly what happened to Laslow, actually even more so, Laslow worked on computers and a targeting system, like tracking system things. So Laszlo's technology might be part of this too. Yeah. this is all part of a weapon and suddenly this thing they were so proud of is something they're terrified of. And it's gone.

Matthew 40:22

Yes. They rush back to the lab and all the stuff is gone. And here's where we get a little bit of the Hollywood acceleration of what's practical in that apparently they took this prototype right outta the lab and brought it over to install it into an airplane.

Ian 40:38

Not the, not the safest or the, the smartest way of doing things. No.

Matthew 40:43

Or the most practical, but

Ian 40:46

yeah.

Matthew 40:46

It, uh, but, and this is where it turns into a heist movie. Where we see this montage of planning and these specific things they're doing because they wanna stop this from happening. They wanna, they wanna derail this project and they want to get back at Kent and Jerry Hathaway.

Ian 41:07

Yes. and they, they prank Kent pretty severely here. Um, I don't know how much we wanna go into this part. They put a radio transmitter on his braces so that he's hearing voices.

Matthew 41:20

Yeah. And they've been able to do that because they knock him out with some sleeping gas that ick came up with. So everybody in the little Scooby gang gets a role here and Jordan ly has built the little radio receiver and it's his braces and his mouth are then are the, the amplifier. So they make Kent think he's talking to God.

Ian 41:42

Yeah.

Matthew 41:45

And they tell him to go to a particular place at a particular time, which turns out to be Jerry's house,

Ian 41:50

but they also get the information of what's going to be happening. Something about a test launch at an Air Force base, and they trail, their professor all the way out to figure out where it is and sneak onto the base to get rid of the, the, uh, device To stop it or change it.

Matthew 42:13

Yes. 'cause it's, it's Chris Knight and Mitch, very unlikely, but they bluff their way into the base and get on board the B one bomber and reprogram something about the laser system.

Ian 42:29

In a very cool, very, uh, hackers kind of way where they're pulling a, a chip off of the board and popping it in and hooking up a ro a radio telephone connection so that they can relay the information all the way over to, Laszlo's giant set of computers where he can decode everything and program it in it. It gave me flashbacks to the movie hackers. Yeah. In a wonderful way.

Matthew 42:53

It was good. This multi-directional, we've gotta get the information, we've gotta change the information, we've gotta send the information back. And all this while Mitch and Knight are trying to avoid detection by the guards and the scientists who are there at the, the Air Force base.

Ian 43:08

And what did they change on the weapon system, the target, because. If they're going to get back at their professor, Jerry Hathaway, what has we see in Hathaway working on the entire time? The lovely new house of his, he

Matthew 43:29

asked this McMansion that he is so proud of and that's where they sent Kent

Ian 43:34

exactly. And it's this ending clip that I've seen before.

Matthew 43:38

Okay. You've seen the results here.

Ian 43:41

I've seen the results out of context. People have used that as a reaction GIF online it's wonderful because they have snuck into, the professor's house and filled up a giant like pool. Full of popcorn kernels, this

Matthew 44:01

giant aluminum foil ball.

Ian 44:04

You opened it and made a i and made a giant Jiffy Pop for our audio listeners here. My dad gave me a bag and said, don't open it until you finished the film. And I sat there and I saw the ending and I'm like, I know what's in that bag. And I just reached in and pulled like Thor's hammer up to the sky. I think a Jiffy Pop. 'cause of course it is. I didn't know if we had ever made of this film.

Matthew 44:34

I didn't know if we'd ever made Jiffy Pop when you were a kid. So I had to make sure you had one of those when you were seeing this.

Ian 44:40

I love it. It was brilliant. But the CIA and the Air Force people are there as they test out crossbow and they have their fake target. They fire and it doesn't happen. And. Jerry, who has been getting increasingly paranoid this entire time, dashes over and checks where it fired and follows the, the targeting and sees his own house. As we cut to the inside and there's Kent standing before this giant tinfoil, domed sci-fi looking thing, and the light of from the sky comes through the window, hits this and popcorn starts flowing.

Matthew 45:29

Oh, can I make a, an observation about the intended test target for this project? Yes. Because it consisted of there was an open top car full of mannequins. Being towed by some soldier or airman driving a truck a few yards ahead, connected to it by some rope or some chain that airman either had tremendous confidence or had learned. You just don't ask questions. They say drive, drive, but you've got a laser that's supposed to blow up the car that's, uh, 10 yards behind you.

Ian 46:07

I'm just also realizing the fact that this is a, uh, am I correct that that was a line of multiple black cars where the car in the center was an open topped black convertible with a target in the back?

Matthew 46:28

Yeah. Yeah. A certain kind of event that they seem to be referencing there.

Ian 46:33

Yeah, that, that's a little bit of an odd one. CIA. Okay. Then.

Matthew 46:40

That would be so much easier than using umbrella man.

Ian 46:45

Oh goodness. Yeah. Um, so, uh, I do love the, the scene though of this fancy house they've built with popcorn flowing out of the windows and such and cracking apart, which is the next piece of Ian does the math.

Matthew 47:06

Oh, I was just saying, I, I haven't done the math, but I have my doubts. What do you think?

Ian 47:10

That's the thing. Like popcorn has a, a force of 135 PSI when it explodes. Mm-hmm. But that's internal PSI, and depending on the type of wood or concrete, it's not as far off as you'd expect to cause cracks. So it wouldn't just force its way. But there's a chance you would kind of ding the, ding the material into weakness. I'm just not sure if the actual popped kernels wouldn't just compress too much.

Matthew 47:42

That's the thing. It doesn't necessarily come down to the PSI of the explosion. It comes down to the volume and rigidity of the, the popcorn once it's popped. If you simply are trying to put, if you're keep introducing too much volume into a defined space, then it becomes a function of the rigidity. And I, I agree with you. I don't think popcorn itself is rigid enough to do, and I don't think that the number of kernels that would fit in that ball would necessarily have resulted in enough popcorn to fill and overflow the house itself. Because I don't know what the expansion ratio is from kernel to popcorn.

We don't have

Ian 48:23

to figure it out.

Matthew 48:24

Oh, somebody's beaten us to this. No, not a surprise

Ian 48:27

MythBusters episode. Car versus Rain in 2009 tested. Exactly this cool. Popping popcorn through induction heating. Mm-hmm. Because a significantly large laser was not available. The result was that it was unable to expand sufficiently to break glass, much less break open the door. Ah. Instead the popcorn simply started to char in the extra heat and force.

Matthew 48:53

Okay. So it compressed and charred. It didn't have anywhere to go because it wasn't strong enough to break through. Mm-hmm. Now, maybe, okay, maybe ick came up with some way to treat the popcorn that was still edible, but made it more rigid. Seems unlikely. The still edible seems unlikely. Yeah. And I hope it was still edible because we do see neighborhood kids coming and looting the giant popcorn reservoir.

Ian 49:24

I don't, I don't care what they did to the pop, what ick might have done to make the popcorn work. I'm more worried about the fact that, do you honestly trust Professor Jerry Hathaway to build his McMansion up to code? That's true. That those are covered in, in cheap money saving wood lacker because this is an ornate house that is not built well.

Matthew 49:46

That's a good point. Maybe that's their, their message there.

Ian 49:50

I, I will say though, this is one of those feel good endings because, all of our characters get to see the events happen. they pulled in like the dean of the school. To present what this is and be able to explain what's going on and use the fact that the laser hit the thing as proof of co. Of as like proof that we made what we said we made and that it was being used by someone else. Yep. Um, I love the fact that Kent, who has been there for all these different pranks and events and gotten upset and mad and angry every single time he has been so against it comes sliding out of the house on this wave of popcorn.

And the first thing he says was, that was amazing.

Matthew 50:43

Yes. Now he does think he was sent there by God.

Ian 50:47

He does. But Chris and Mitch help him up and walk away the three of them. Yes. And there's this, it's like, it's kind of nice. Kent gets redeemed. He may have already cousin this. Maybe he's learned something. 'cause in this one moment of being the, the side butt of this joke, he actually had fun in it.

Matthew 51:09

Yes.

Ian 51:10

And so there is an element there of like, we don't get to see that character development continue, but it leaves you with the, he might've been able to be a nicer guy and actually be part of the group.

Matthew 51:23

And that kind of goes both ways because the instructions that they sent to Kent via the voice of God in his braces were to go to this address and do not go inside, stay outside and watch for a sign. Yeah. But Kent goes inside anyway, figures. Well, I'm here, I should just go inside. Mm-hmm. And Mitch and Chris Knight and the others are now worried for Kent and they're yelling out to him and. Say come, come out. They, they're revealing their, their location. They're not staying hidden because they're concerned about Kent and his safety and they run to the house.

They don't quite get there in time before the laser hits and the popcorn starts. And fortunately, Kent turns out to be okay. But they didn't want Kent to be harmed. They just wanted a prank.

Ian 52:10

Yeah. And that seems to be respected. Yep. there's a whole side thing with some of the other characters as they leave, but really that's kind of the end of this film where the house is destroyed. Jerry is in bad, bad situation with the CIA who are very unhappy with him. '

Matthew 52:32

cause now only has the, the, the test of project Crossbow gone horribly wrong. This gives them reason to investigate this house that Jerry suddenly had the money for.

Ian 52:41

Oh, and let's not forget the fact that, um, because he didn't make it, he just took his students' work. He didn't understand or re relay how important the cooling system was to keep this laser, which was a single shot laser working. Mm-hmm. So when they installed it and fired it once, it caught on fire and burned itself to a crisp at the end because they, they never did the cooling step that was needed.

Matthew 53:17

And they, the, the movie did take pains to point out that this was a remotely controlled bomber that it was installed in. So no pilots were harmed in the destruction of this prototype.

Ian 53:28

But still is like the military doesn't have, their tech doesn't have a way to remake it and has proof that Jerry embezzled a lot of funds. both Chris and Mitch have proof that they were able to make something and defensible positions with the, the school and the dean and everything else.

Matthew 53:49

I like the fact that the dean, who we've seen as kind of a distracted, bumbling, sort of older. Uh, but well-meaning they call him out to witness what happens here at this, at this house. And he shows up the early morning in his bathrobe and he's wearing the same exact bunny slippers as Chris Knight.

Ian 54:08

They are. Mm-hmm. The early on in some of these things, it definitely had this, you know, oh, Chris is not gonna be like any of the rest of the faculty. He's not, you know, he doesn't have a future here. And that little moment says, no. The Chris Knights of the world become the dean. Everyone's been respecting in the background here.

Matthew 54:30

Yes. I like the idea that maybe Chris's future is in mentoring other geniuses, the way we see him mentor Mitch and helping them become not only the best technologists they can be, but also the best people they can be. And there's even a happy ending for Laszlo. Because we do find out, we find out what Laszlo's been doing in the basement with all these computers,

Ian 54:56

which is the wildest, weird thing and was kind of, huh?

Matthew 55:03

He has been, he's been gaming the Frito Lay sweepstakes because no purchases necessary to enter, and he's been generating entries to these online con, not online, it's the eighties. He's been generating entries to these mail-in sweepstakes contests and putting in thousands of entries and calculating that he is guaranteed to win 30 some percent of all prizes. And at the end he drives by to say, say farewell to everybody because he's got the, the RV that he has won and it's filled with all of the other stuff that he has won, all these electronics and things. And he's also got a fiance because we met early in the movie a woman who worked at the company that Chris Knight's job was being set up at.

And she's a, has been a collector. Yeah. She wants to meet all of the smartest people in science and technology in the world. And now she's figured out who the top 10 are. She's been with seven, but Laslow has been the, because nobody knows what happened to him. She's never been able to meet him. And now he's been out in public, she's met him and they're gonna go, go off to Las Vegas and get married. And they both seem very happy.

Ian 56:22

They really do. It's, it's a very odd ending and. But it's a very happy one, and I do appreciate that. Like the very end, the, the post credits scene is just, it's just Professor Jerry Hathaway pulling up to his house and it's just this cracked sided pile of popcorn.

Matthew 56:47

As he gets there, we see neighborhood kids running away with radio flyer wagons full of popcorn. I love that.

Ian 56:52

But it's like, like everyone else gets there walking to the sunset, and there's so few films that have like the villain standing there looking at what had been their lair. It's like, there's, there's so, there's so few panning, aftermath shots, but this movie does it.

Matthew 57:12

And I had never really thought about the redemption opportunity for Kent, but I like that. I'm glad you pointed that out, because in many ways, Kent and the rest of the team, they were misused by, uh, Jerry as much as anybody. They responded to it differently, but still in a very believable way that maybe if I just kowtow this guy and try to prove myself to this guy a little bit more, he'll start respecting me. And of course that never happens.

Ian 57:41

Yeah. There, there's a little bit of there that, fight, flee, freeze. Yeah. Or fawn.

Matthew 57:48

Mm-hmm.

Ian 57:49

And it's like we saw that when the stress hit them, Chris Knight fled. He ran off into everything else.

Matthew 57:58

Yep.

Ian 57:59

Mitch freezes a little. Yeah. And Kent Fawned. Kent said, oh, I'm treated like this. Well that's how the industry is. I'll be ready to be that. And it didn't do him any, uh, well either. We never saw anyone really fight until the end.

Matthew 58:21

Yeah, that's when everybody's instincts switch over to that.

Ian 58:25

Right. But in terms of like that kind of reaction set, these three fit those different aspects quite well. Mm-hmm.

Matthew 58:34

Well, I think we might be coming up on our final questions.

Ian 58:38

I really think we are.

Matthew 58:40

So stay tuned for those as we talk about, uh, whether we recommend this movie and what we might wanna see from this in the future. But first, if you're enjoying the Inter Millennium Media project, please go to IMMProject.com because that's where you'll find all of our back episodes. And you'll also find ways to support the show, be it on Patreon, where you can get additional, uh, audio content bonuses or random DVDs in the mail periodically if you join at the movie club level. And you can also support us there at our store, uh, if you like, t-shirts and coffee mugs and notebooks and other fun things, not just our logo, but also specific items for, fans of shows like the Prisoner and Space 1999.

Yes. And of course the best way to support the show is to let people know about it. Give us those five star ratings on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Let friends know about it. Uh, you can also, if it's easier to share things via YouTube, we do put our episodes up on YouTube as well. If you're listening to this audio, you can also see the video and, also@improject.com. You can contact us by email, by actual US mail on our discord. We would love to hear from you. What did you think of this movie? Do you have any other fun, wacky science or, eighties movies that you, uh, wanna recommend or you think that we should talk about on the podcast? We'd love to hear from you.

Ian, where can people find you?

Ian 1:00:06

I can be found as item crafting, be that as itemcraftinglive on Twitch every Thursday. Come join for, you know, games and crafting. And I'm currently working on a revamp of itemcrafting.com where you could come see the project I've worked on and send messages direct as well. How about you, dad?

Matthew 1:00:26

Well, you can find me at bymatthewporter.com. That'll have a link to whatever else I'm doing online, which includes, the byMatthewPorter YouTube channel, where I do movie and movie theater reviews, mainly in the Drafthouse diary. I've got a Alamo Drafthouse, uh, cinema season pass and I'm not afraid to use it. And, uh, I also sometimes do travel in other videos on that YouTube channel. so final questions. It's a movie screen or no screen. What do you recommend?

Ian 1:00:57

There was some aspects of this movie that were very, very dated and at times nerve wracking. For me, it has some of that cringey aspect, especially like the party scene and things like that where I'm just like, ah, no characters don't make them mistakes. Ah, but it was a very good film. So I'm going to say screen, but it's definitely got a hint of if you are sensitive to that kind of content, like I am, be it, be aware that this is going to be a movie that makes you squirm for some of its jokes at sometimes, but it's really good in all the other moments.

And there were plenty of po moments where I laughed heartily.

Matthew 1:01:41

It's, I, I've, I've gotta think sometimes about how this is now the equivalent of me in college in the eighties watching movies from the 1940s and having to recognize that there are just assumed cultural. Ideas about things like sex and gender and race and economics and other things that simply seemed awful in the eighties. But that doesn't mean you reject everything from the 1940s. Similarly, I was there, you could see things in movies from the eighties that you would think this, this is terrible. But fortunately, we're not in that spot anymore.

I would. Mm-hmm. I would hope. I would hope so. And, um, I may, I may or may not leave this in, but I'm curious as to your view of this, Ian, in that we do see that with, with Mitch and Jordan. I think that is, it's not a big part of the movie, but this little spark of romance between them is great and, but they, uh, make it clear. Mitch is 15 and Jordan is 19. They're both college students. Yeah. That is an age gap that 10 years later for both of them, not a big deal. How do you feel about this 19-year-old, 15-year-old romance?

Ian 1:03:00

I think that it was harder to notice because they did a lot of work in Infantalizing, the Jordan character. Yeah. In the way they portrayed what might be considered now a portrayal of extreme kinds of a DH adhd.

Matthew 1:03:20

Oh, yes. Or

Ian 1:03:20

autism

Matthew 1:03:21

in that sense. Yeah. They might not use those terms, but it's clearly the kind of character this was

Ian 1:03:25

and that the fact that those are put hand in hand with Infantilism has some other major problems. Oh, yes. And so it's weird where I'm saying like they dodged that bullet by diving headfirst into another one that we are more aware of now and. I was uncomfortable at times with that relationship, but not for that reason. But I should have been. I think it's a little odd. Yeah. I think they either needed to do, yeah, they, they, they could have done more with Jordan's character to give her depth in that sense and more with Mitch's character, either to acknowledge the gap or shorten that gap and they did nothing.

So, eh,

Matthew 1:04:20

It's interesting that I never really noticed that in previous watches. And at very least, the question occurred to me. In this watch. Mm-hmm. So I was curious as whether you had any, any response to that. But you're right. I, I like that image. You've got Ben. If, uh, they, they, they dodged one bullet by leaping in front of another. Yeah. And yet they still showed Jordan as a character who was very comfortable being who she was, liked being who she was, was outgoing, and wanted to share the, the things she was capable of to help others.

She was a very complete character in that way. Even if she was a stereotype in the way, lots of characters in a, a wacky movie like this can be stereotypes. Mm-hmm. Uh, so so you are recommending it as a screen with those kind of warnings, those caveats?

Ian 1:05:16

Yeah. Those warnings and caveats of, you know. The, there are elements here which are awkward because of changes since the eighties. Changes in portrayal and just changes in colleges and sensibility in that sense. Yeah.

Matthew 1:05:34

Yeah. I would, I would agree. There are things that it's just, oh, no, that's not, and yet it's still, it's a sufficiently fun and interesting movie that I recommend to screen. And that leads us to, uh, another question, which is, revive, reboot, or rest in peace. And you've, you've talked about changes in sensibilities that that comes up here.

Ian 1:05:56

It really does, because I'm looking at this and saying it's hard to do a college movie in the same way anymore. A lot of our, our films, I don't see as many set in that environment in the same way. That's partially just because of socialization and changes. weirdly, like here's a weird comment. Making Real Genius in a cinema landscape post the social network is a very different challenge.

Matthew 1:06:32

Oh, that is an interesting comparison. And I think you're, you're, you're right on.

Ian 1:06:39

And yet I think it could be excellent. And so I'm saying I'd love a reboot with a little bit of fun if you can have a revival aspect. Yep. Which is unfortunately we have lost Val Kilmer.

Matthew 1:07:01

Yes. We don't, we we're not going to get to see Dean Knight. Of, uh, of Pacific Tech, sadly.

Ian 1:07:08

Yeah. But I do wonder if, uh, Gabrielle Jarrett, who's done some stuff here and there, would be happy to come back as, as Dean Taylor.

Matthew 1:07:21

Oh, I wonder,

Ian 1:07:22

as a cameo in it.

Matthew 1:07:24

Yeah.

Ian 1:07:25

Could be very fun. And at the same time, I get the feeling like you could have a story about of the, the, the plot structure of Real Genius set in the modern day and set with the different technology sets where the students are working on different things. The what you do and how you do it is different. And yet there's still that same. Two geniuses stuck in a dorm together of different natures element, I think could be quite good.

Matthew 1:08:02

It could, it is, it is a different paradigm these days because the likely or the, the, the, the noteworthy story here is not young geniuses develop this technology and then it's exploited by the military industrial complex. Mm-hmm. It's more likely to be young geniuses come with a tech, come up with a technology, find VC funding and exploit themselves or one another, or they get exploited not by the military industrial folks, but by the, uh, the advertising financial complex of VCs.

Ian 1:08:36

Yeah. If you still want it to be the military industrial complex. Making, uh, our Jerry Hathaway, not a professor, but this venture capitalist who grabs five students and pushes them in their little directions. 'cause he can Voltron all of their things together into a product he's selling to the military.

Matthew 1:08:57

Oh, interesting.

Ian 1:08:58

Could work quite well because then you get the interesting thing of like, well I've been working on this, I've been working on that, I've been working on this thing. Oh great. They could put 'em it all together.

Matthew 1:09:09

Oh yeah. The technology incubator as secret, mad scientist lab.

Ian 1:09:14

Exactly. That kind of element they could play with. And you still have a lot of fun of, you know, you know, messing with the other people's devices and you know, you can even have, because of how I'd seen this clip the first time, the idea of doing, of new version of Real Genius and someone uses. The clip of the popcorn incident from Real Genius as a reaction GIF on their little chat board with each other. Oh, is the kind of thing you can do. Yes. And I, that's the thing. Maybe it won't be Real Genius at that point. Mm-hmm. I don't know. And yet this kind of movie should still be there and I don't see them anymore, and I wish we did.

Matthew 1:10:01

Yep. And, and there is this, this, this kind of story writ large, the, the money in power manipulating the genius is mm-hmm. It's a perennial story. We see it retold. We see aspects of that in THE BRUTALIST from earlier this year. It's um, uh, that disconnect between there's the genius, but he needs the resources that someone else has in order to realize what they are doing. That or what they realize what their potential is. That's, that creates a tension that's good for storytelling.

Ian 1:10:41

Mm-hmm. In, in some ways, because of what's happened in our own world, that story is always told as a dark one right now.

Chris Knight 1:10:51

Yeah.

Ian 1:10:53

And not a story that can have a lessons learned, positive ending.

Matthew 1:11:02

That's true. We don't see so many stories in which we show that this combination of resources from one person and genius from another person turns into an incredibly fruitful and beneficial collaboration for everyone involved. And, you know,

Ian 1:11:17

yeah.

Matthew 1:11:18

That, that is not an impossible scenario. Maybe it's time for some, some more, uh, optimistic stories that way.

Ian 1:11:24

Mm-hmm. Little bit of, little bit of cinematic nihilism, overtaking what could be a wonderful concept.

Matthew 1:11:33

But it would be interesting to see, I don't, as fun as it is to think about some of the ideas of, of revivals here. It, I'd also a, a prequel is technically a rev revival in our terms. And maybe there's a story to be told in young Chris Knight coming to Pacific Tech Hmm. Earlier in the eighties, a period piece about him, how he became Chris Knight. I'm not sure that there is enough of a story there compared to Mitch showing up and having Chris Knight as his mentor.

Ian 1:12:03

Yeah. The fact is like the only way that works is if there's another Chris Knight to Yeah. Chris Knight. Chris Knight's, Mitch. It's kind of,

Matthew 1:12:12

yeah. It sounds like an interesting, but a fanfic but not necessarily a movie.

Ian 1:12:16

Exactly. Uh, and of course there's something we always just appreciate if you're making a story, whatever kind it is. Just putting Pacific Tech University as your location. Yes. Just yo. You know, it doesn't have to be the same people. It can just, just that little bit of world background that connects them all together can be delightfully fun.

Matthew 1:12:39

Well, this was fun. This is a movie that, um, I have had differing opinions about this movie as I, I watch it and then come back to it a while later. But I enjoyed this watch and, uh, seeing it as a movie of its time. It, uh, it was fun and it's some fun performances. Gval Kilmer is known for so many, much more serious performances, like in mm-hmm. Top Gun and in, Tombstone that seeing him just have fun in this role is, uh, is a joy.

Ian 1:13:12

There, there is a, there is a, a level of a manic that he can put into his more intimidating roles that when put into an exuberant, happy person

Matthew 1:13:23

Yes.

Ian 1:13:23

Has this. Wonderful dissonance. There's this, excited and like things are going to explode around him and it is his fault. And yet instead of being scared of him, you're with him on it.

Matthew 1:13:38

And it's, it's, he has this charisma that it, it is believable that this awkward 15-year-old who doesn't know where he fits in, is drawn to him and sees him as, he sees him as admirable, but very quickly realizes all of the cracks in that. And how, you know, this is guy is, is dangerous and weird and needs to grow up. Mm-hmm.

Ian 1:14:03

And it says something that this was his, according to his, like his imdb, this is his second real lead role ever. And he already had that level of just presence and energy. Mm-hmm. So that's, that's a great sign. Yep.

Matthew 1:14:20

And as we finish up here, I realize I didn't say at the top of the podcast why we picked this movie for right now. It's September, it's back to school time.

Ian 1:14:30

Oh yeah.

Matthew 1:14:32

The semester is starting at Pacific Tech. So that's why we decided to visit it with, uh, uh, Real Genius.

Ian 1:14:40

Oh. So that means we're going to be continuing at school here, I take it. Getting into our classes.

Matthew 1:14:46

That's right. Our next episode will still be in, September. So we are gonna have another installment of our, uh, back to school theme. In just a couple of weeks with another piece of media from the 20th century.

Ian 1:14:59

In the meantime, go find something new to watch.